All I Ask of You
by Pheobetitanessofthemoon1234
Summary: Drabbles and short one-shots for my favorite pairings. (Most of these will include spoilers for Tfof). I don't own Lorien Legacies. (Seven is my biase so we can all guess as to who most of these are centered on).
1. the taste of your name - adam x marina

**the taste of your name ~ Adam/Seven**

**Extra Notes: If I've written Adam OOC, then I'm sorry. I've written his character judged on Adam's wiki page and some other stories. I've read. Oh, and sorry for any spelling mistakes. This was typed on my IPad.**

After Eight's death, Marina guards herself against the emotion that almost destroys her. She takes the broken pieces of her heart and melds them together with ice. The seventh of the loric does not plan to love again.

But then, he comes into the picture - the mog who betrayed his own people to support their cause.

Adamus Sutekh ("Or, as. I like to call him, One 2.0," Nine says, indifferent or oblivious to the way that Adam's eyes lower and his hands twitch)

His name tastes strange on her tongue, and she finds herself whispering it to her pillow late at night, Adamus, Adamus, Adamus.

In the morning, she simply calls him Adam. With him, she acts like she normally does with all of the boys these days - distant, cold. She cannot afford to break again.

In turn, Adam treats her like he treats all the girls he has in his life - he trips over his feet and babbles awkwardly every time he sees her looking at him. As opposed to the way everyone else treats her, like she is a carefully made porcelain statue that can break at any given moment, Marina prefers it.

Without realizing it, she begins to fall into a friendship with Adam. During their spare time, they sit together in his room or hers, doing their own thing (Marina is usually reading one of the books left behind by the last owner of the apartment, while Adam watches the internet for news, and - as Marina catches him doing one day - spying on the IM and Email accounts of the mogs), they train together in the abandoned track area that is behind the apartment building (Marina certainly kicks his butt more than he likes to admit), and, sometimes, when the weather is sunny and Marina is in the mood, they sit on the track and talk - well, Adam talks, and she listens, giving her input every now and then.

She likes that the only Marina he knows is the new version, because it means that he doesn't look at her with nostalgia in his eyes. The darker version of herself is the one that he falls for.

* * *

It's been a few months since he met her when he realizes that his simple nervousness around girls is completely different from the butterflies that take flight when she talks to him - looks at him, even.

"That's a tough catch you're trying for, Adam," Sam tells him one day when he catches Adam staring at her as she prepares dinner (the apartment that they bought as a HQ isn't half as lavish as Nine's penthouse, but Marina makes sure to try her best to make everyone at home with the food she cooks).

"Huh?" Adam asks, his concentration broken.

Sam smiles, turning his head. "You know what I mean. Marina - she's as tough a catch as Loric girls get."

Sam knows what he's talking about. He is, after all, Six's boyfriemd.

Adam cannot find it in him to deny it (he's grown weary of pretending) so he says, "Tell me about it."

* * *

Marina doesn't like the fact that her heart runs a faster course whenever he catches him staring at her. She doesn't like the fact that, somehow, Adam has wriggled through her walls of ice and tickles her heart with her warm fingers.

It's been so long since she's felt that feeling, the feeling of warmth brushing her heart, and she doesn't want to like it, even though she does.

Still, she breathes his name against her pillow, Adamus, Adamus, Adamus, and the taste is beginning to become more familiar.

* * *

She tries to avoid him, of course she does, but she always finds herself pacing to his room by instinct or need, maybe both, and seating herself down by his side with no sounds but the creak of his bed, and the opening of her chosen book.

* * *

It is a week after she realizes that she likes him when she finds out that their is more than one taste to his name.

It tastes dark, like rich chocolate, it tastes sweet, like cool milk, it tastes sour, like unripened fruit.

It tastes salty, like bitter tears.

She spills it over her pillow like a song, or a sin, or maybe even a prayer. _Adamus, Adamus, Adamus_.

* * *

It's not really the kind of awkward, experimental first love that they shared with One and Eight, respectively, but that doesn't mean it isn't love at all.

* * *

They share their first kiss on the balcony of the apartment, below the watchful eyes of the moon and the stars, when Adam finds her standing by the railing, releasing a pigeon that was dying on the floor when she found it. It's at least one in the morning, and Adam only really got up because he was thirsty.

It starts off as just him tucking loose strands of hair behind her ear, and before they know it, their lips are joined and her hands are fisted in his hair.

Marina's kisses are rough and dark, just as the rest of her is, but Adam can taste a touch of warmth in there.

She wraps her legs around his waist and he raises her to sit on the cold, metal railing. His side is slightly awkward (his first kiss was One, and that didn't leave him with the most experience), but hers is too, so it balances it out.

Her teeth sink into his bottom lip, deep enough to break skin, and there's blood and Marina's tongue, and heat in his mouth. Her hands are intwined in his hair, and its such a heated mess.

Sure, he never got the water that he wanted, but that doesn't mean that he didn't get something better.

"Adamus," she sighs against his lips, and for once his name tastes like blood. Hot, metallic blood.

(She sleeps in his bed that night, face buried in Adam's neck as the ice in her heart melts and seeps from her tear ducts.)


	2. beautiful oblivion - eight x marina

**beautiful oblivion ~ eight/marina (seven)**

**Extra Notes: I was sitting in church, not paying attention as usual because I don't understand Tagalog (God, please forgive me), and I thought of this. My first Navrina.**

They lie together on the roof, Eight's arm draped around her shoulders and Marina's face pressed snug into his chest. It was Eight's idea. He wanted to sleep under the stars with her, to show her the constellations, so they swiped a mattress from one of the extra rooms and brought it up to the roof.

"And that one," he says, tracing the constellation out in thin air with his free arm, "is the archer."

Marina hums in response, her eyes closed. He's been pointing out constellations to her for half an hour, and now she has stopped listening to what he is actually saying, just letting the music of his voice lull her to sleep.

Eight looks down at her, chocolate eyes searching her face. The cold, Chicago air bites at her cheeks and nose, leaving behind red skin. Just looking at her makes his heart ache to share the same oblivion.

It is the thing he wants most in the world, that he can never have.

"You know, Marina," Eight says, thinking about how he has to keep her awake long enough for him to gather enough courage to say what he needs to say. "While I was in India, I learnt quite a lot about the Hindus. They say that when you die, you'll be reborn into a new body."

Marina's eyes open, and they are full of curiosity. This information has piqued her interest just enough to wake her up. "Really?"

"Yeah," he says, poking her nose playfully. "What you are in your next life is based on your actions in this life."

Marina smiles. "What do you want to be in your next life?"

"I want to be reborn as a star, so I can watch over you," he says, almost immediately.

She frowns, and her brow creases. "You realize that I might die before you, right?"

Eight's chest throbs with pain (_you don't know, you don't know what I know_) and his voice is strained as he answers her. "Don't talk like that."

"Eight, is something wrong?" she asks, sitting up. Eight can't stand to be away from her, not after she was so close mere seconds ago, and sits up with her. "You've been acting weird all week."

Yes. Ever since he woke up from that dream - the dream that told him he was not as safe as he thought - he has been acting strange.

"Of course not," he says. "It's just that..."

His voice drops off. If he is to say anything, now is the time to say it. The words are almost there, so tantalizingly close to slipping off the tip of his tongue, and he opens his mouth to say them.

Instead, the words fall short and tumble back into his mouth, and he just says, "I don't thing I'd be able to stand it if I got another scar on my leg."

Marina looks like she doesn't believe him, but she certainly doesn't give that away in words.

"Don't worry about it," she soothes, and her voice is smooth as silk. "We're all together now. No more Garde are going down."

He smiles, but it doesn't reach his eyes. "Yeah, you're right. Let's just...sleep now. If we wake up late, Nine might put us through a bunch of army drills."

And, just like that, the chance is gone. He curses himself for a coward as they lay back down, and she presses her cheek against his chest once more.

His heart is burning at this point, searing the inside of his chest. It makes him want to scream in agony, but he keeps quiet, because Marina is falling asleep again and he doesn't want to bother her when he can't even confess how much she means to him.

It has been hours since Marina's fallen asleep when finally allows himself to release his pent up tears, and the sobs rake through him, running wild and free, shaking his arms.

He doesn't want to leave. He doesn't want to leave this roof, not now, not ever. He doesn't want this moment to end. He doesn't want to wake up in the morning and have to let Marina go, unknowing if that will be the last time he ever gets to hold her.

He presses his face into her hair, not wanting to sleep, lest he waste the moment, and the words finally slip off the tip of his tongue.

They are not the words that he originally sent from his brain to his tongue, just as he is not the little boy that the elders sent from Lorien to Earth because the original words tell her that he loves her

The pained confession that he whispers into her hair tells her that he needs her.


	3. before the dawn - nine x marina

**before the dawn - nine x marina**

**Extra Notes: I thought of this while reading a Rachel/Youngdo fanfiction called 'a Forecast of Snow'. Has a sexual implication, at the end. I'm accepting prompts on my Marina rp tumblr, loricseaqueen dot tumblr dot com, so please drop one into my ask box. I accept for all ships, aside from Nix and Nine/Ella. Yeah, sorry. In my headcanon Nine belongs to Marina XD. I'll always answer, no matter how long it takes, so...PLEASE DROP ME PROOOMPPPTTTSSS. **

Marina finds Nine at the motel's bar, drowning his sorrows in alcohol.

"They know how to swim," she immediately says, and Nine's head whips around to face her. Marina answers the unspoken question that dances in his eyes as she walks up to sit on the bar stool beside him. "Your sorrows, I mean. Drowning them won't work."

Nine's eyes follow her, his hand clenching the beer bottle. "You here to tell me to stop drinking? Did John send you?"

Marina smiles - a bitter, cynical smile that is almost nothing like her old one. Whilst Eight's death has turned Nine into an alcoholic, it's turned her into a complete ice princess. "Of course not. I came here to join you."

She swipes the bottle out of his hand, startling him, and takes a swig. He watches as the bottle comes away from her lips, and her arm lifts up to wipe them. "This stuff tastes like crap," she tells him, before proceeding to gulp down the rest of the bottle.

"Yes, Marina," he says sarcastically. "You can have some of my painstakingly-earned beer."

"Stop overexaggerating." She throws the bottle, and there's a tinkling sound as it shatters in the rust-eaten metal bin half way across the room. "How long have you been down here?"

"About an hour," he replies. He woke up early and decided to come down for a drink. He's drunk at least ten bottles, and he's still not even tipsy. Maybe it's the fact that he's an alien, or maybe it's just the fact that his immunity has built up so high, but this beer isn't doing shit for him.

"We need another one!" Nine calls to the bartender, who's standing at the other side of the counter and wiping glasses.

"You two better be leaving soon," she demands, as she obtains another bottle and slams it down onto the counter. "Closing time is in an hour."

"Just wash your stupid cups, and shut your mouth," Nine snaps. "I'm a fucking alien!"

Okay, so maybe he is starting to get a little drunk.

"Crazy asses," the lady mutters, as she walks away.

Marina pulls the cork and takes a swig. "This is seriously the crappiest beer I've ever tasted."

"I didn't know you've tasted beer, before," he replies, taking the bottle from her and downing a few gulps of his own.

"After the marsh," she simply says, and Nine can't help the twitch in his eye and the clench of his fist. He sucks in a breath. "It was only once."

She takes the bottle back, and Nine watches her throat bob as she ingests more beer. He thinks about how much one death can change someone. Marina used to be the doting mother hen, the glue that held the team together. Now, he supposes, she's more like the ice that holds them together.

Nine decides, for the fiftieth time since they fled the marshlands, that he will kill Five when they meet again.

Well, unless Marina kills him first. He shivers slightly, remembering her parting words with Five.

"It wasn't your fault, you know," Marina says, looking at him. Her voice is cold, but her eyes are sincere. "At first, I guess I wanted to blame you, because, well, you really can't shut your mouth for shit, but, Five is the one who killed Eight."

His mouth opens, maybe to tell her that he was effected by Eight too, or how much he wants to kill Five as well, or that there is no use because nothing anyone says will ever convince him that it was not his fault, but he simply says, "Pass the bottle."

And so, she does. Nine finishes it off, before yelling at the bartender for another one. She glares at them as the bottle clinks against the counter, and Nine makes a face at her.

Surprisingly, Marina laughs when the lady turns away, and takes another drink. "That bitch hates us," she mutters to Nine, handing the bottle to him.

"No kidding," he tells her. Their fingers brush, just that slightest touch, and Nine's heart speeds up. _No, Nine,_ he scolds himself. _Now is so not the time_. He looks at the clock.

4:50 AM. The bar is closing soon.

"Sometimes, I wonder," he tells her.

Marina takes a swig. "What do you wonder about?"

He could say that he wonders about a lot of things, and then just end it there. But, he's spent too much time avoiding things, and he's tired of it. He avoided his death when Eight teleported, he avoided his sorrow when he came down here to get drunk (only to find that Marina is right, and that sorrows know how to swim), and he avoided telling Marina about their shared pain a few minutes ago.

"I wonder if I was the one that died," he says, and pauses for a moment, "would everyone be as effected?"

Marina stares at him, eyes searching and melancholic, before she answers. Her voice is warm, surprisingly so, and it gives Nine a sense of nostalgia. He hasn't heard her speak like that for ages. "Of course we would, Nine," she tells him, and a strange kind of happiness shoots through him. "You're as important a member as everyone else...and the most powerful out of all of us."

He thinks about the way her telekinesis is starting to grow stronger than his, and how, with just a flick of her wrist, she can impale someone with an icicle, or freeze them from the inside out (he's seen her do it with a mog, once. It was truly terrifying as fuck). He may be the strongest among them now, but that doesn't mean he'll stay like that forever. Marina is beginning to catch up with him.

Nine puts the bottle to his lips, and throws his head back, not saying a thing, and she takes the bottle from him and takes her own round. Everything is silent.

4:56 AM. The bar is closing in four minutes - exactly an hour before dawn. Summer is on its way, and the sun is rising earlier.

Maybe it's the alcohol that's loosened his tongue, or maybe he's just in the mood to ask these questions, or maybe it's just that he actually wants to know. He supposes that it doesn't really matter that much, because, later on, when he is thinking back on this event, all that will matter is what happens next.

"What about you, Marina?" he asks, and his voice is husky, catching on almost every syllable.

"What about me?" She questions, not looking at him.

"Would you mourn like this, if it were me?"

His heart is beating, hammering hard in his chest and stealing his breath. His hand goes for the bottle, but misses completely and grabs hers instead. Her skin is hot to the touch, and fire pulses through his veins from it.

Marina looks up at him, eyes wide, and Nine launches himself forward, the metal step of the bar stool digging into his soles as he practically tackles her against the back of the seat.

The kiss is really kind of one sided, and Nine is practically lying on top of her, one hand grasping the back of her seat in a knuckle-whitening grip while the other clenches over hers, and over the bottle. It must be a strange sight to see. _It's the beer_, he tells himself, _it's just the damn beer_

But he knows that he's sober, because this beer isn't doing shit for him.

When Nine draws away, still leaning over her and not letting go of the stool or her hand, he expects her to slap him, to push him. He expects a blast of frost to course through his veins and freeze him from the inside out.

He sure as hell didn't expect her to kiss him.

"Yes," she whispers, just before their lips touch. Her voice is soft, smooth as silk. Not even the tinkle of glass as they both let go of the beer bottle and it falls to the floor is enough to wake him from the kiss.

He's not sure if she's kissing him back because she's actually drunk, or if it's just because she's rebounding, or even if it's the fact that she's taking pity on him. He doesn't really care, and neither does she.

Nine's lips taste like beer - and it's the best beer she's ever tasted.

(Tomorrow, when they wake up in the same bed, naked, they'll think about the consequences. Right now, all Nine can think about is the fire that pulses through him from the spot where their hearts are beating against each other)


	4. don't be afraid of the dark - nineseven

**Extra Notes: this was originally Navrina, but I changed it to Nine/Marina half way through because I thought it fit more**. **This was supposed to be up a lot earlier, but writer's block and home school are bitches when at best. **

Nine is the one to crawl into her bed.

When he enters the room, Marina doesn't even notice. Her back is to the door, her brown hair pulled across her shoulder in a braid (it's grown quite a bit since they've met), and her legs, long and tan and almost completely bare, are tangled in her blankets. The apartment that they bought in Long Island isn't half as high class as their old HQ, so the beds are, well, little more than glorified futons, really.

He's sure she's asleep, so he tiptoes across the room and climbs onto the bed (he doesn't want anything from her, really. He just wants her by his side - it will make him feel safer). When she turns around, braid whipping the pillow and loose strands of hair falling across her face, Nine very nearly tumbles off the bed in his attempt to hide.

"Nine?" she whispers.

Nine peeks over the pillow he's grabbed (it was the first thing he could get his hands on to hide his face), and smiles sheepishly. "Hi, Marina," he says.

"What are you doing here? Is something wrong?"

"No," he squeaks. "I, well...I'm..." He coughs, and mumbles something that she doesn't quite catch.

"Scuse me?" she asks.

"Well you see, I..." he breaks off and starts mumbling again.

"Nine, you seriously need to speak louder. What's up?"

"I'm scared of the dark, okay!" he snaps, maybe being a bit louder than she wanted him to be.

Marina blinks at him. "Repeat that again?"

"How did you not hear me the first time?" he asks. "I'm scared of the dark!"

"Oh, no. I heard you perfectly fine the first time," she replies. "I just wanted to make sure what I was hearing was real."

"I'm being serious!" he whisper shouts. "I can't sleep, because it's a new moon. The moon usually shines in through the window."

Marina raises a brow, and turns her body to face him completely. The room's temperature drops a few degrees. "So you snuck into my bed because it's a new moon today and you're scared of the dark?"

"Well it certainly sounds stupid when you say it like that," he drawls.

She purses her lips and rolls her eyes. "Isn't there another room you can go to?"

The whole roommate system was arranged so that Six and Ella, John and Sarah, Sam, Adam and Malcolme all share rooms together, while Marina sleeps alone in the last one (Nine sometimes finds himself thinking about how, if it weren't for him, she would have a roommate). Nine was left with the couch.

Another sheepish smile. "Well, I don't want to disturb John and Sarah - I seriously have no idea what goes on in that room - Sam, Malcolme and Adam already have as little space as it it, and I'm not very sure that there's much of a welcome mat for me in Six and Ella's room, because, well, Six hates me. So...umm...yeah."

The way she looks at him, for a moment, makes him absolutely positive that she's about to tell him to get the hell out. Marina isn't half as nice as she was before (Eight's death has hardened her, and not only physically), so he actually wouldn't be surprised.

"Just...don't take up the bed space, and don't kick," she replies. She turns away and scoots up to the edge of the bed, leaving the blanket behind with Nine.

Nine huddles up in the blanket (all of the windows are open in her room and it's seriously cold as fuck), and closes his eyes. It's silent for a few minutes, but for the howling of the wind and the soft sound of Marina's breathing, and Nine really does try to sleep.

"Nine," Marina says, voice as soft and cold as snow. "Are you still awake?"

"Yes," he replies, opening his eyes. What does she want? Has she changed her mind?

It's silent again, and Nine waits for her answer. Just when he is about to close his eyes and assume that she doesn't plan to give him one, the bed shifts as she turns her body to face him again.

"Throw me half of the blanket," she tells him, hugging herself. "I'm cold."

The fact that she's cold actually surprises Nine. He'd thought that, because of her legacy, she can't get cold.

He fists the edge of the blanket and tosses it in her direction, she grabs it, tugging it towards herself and turning back around. The blanket slides off Nine's body. Frowning, Nine takes the blanket and tugs it towards himself. He didn't bring his own blanket - he didn't think it would be so cold in her room - and he's too scared to go back out into the dark to get it. (As far as you're concerned, he did not just think that).

The blanket slides off of her.

Marina's head snaps around, and she purses her lips. "_Nine_."

Nine sighs. This is exactly what he was trying to avoid. "Just..." He coughs, and mutters something.

"Nine, you're doing it again."

"Just move a little towards me," he whispers. He remembers sleeping with someone else - a girl with warm skin and a warm room. He sets his jaw. "So we can share the blanket."

She rolls around to face him, and Nine can clearly see her face as she slides under the sheets. Maybe it's in that exact moment that he realizes how pretty he is, and the sudden epiphany jolts him in a way that it shouldn't. Sarah may be the prettiest in the house, but Marina has a more wild, exotic kind of beauty.

"Why didn't you bring your own blanket?" she asks, wrinkling her nose. She doesn't like being under the same blanket, or she's at least awkward about it.

"I didn't think it would be so cold in here," he replies. "And I didn't think you would need your blanket. I was under the impression that the cold doesn't affect you."

He hears her breath catch, and her eyes clench shut. "It doesn't. Not really."

The question is upon his lips before he thinks to stop it. "Then why do you need the blanket?"

He feels the sheets go taut as they catch between her fists. It almost makes him regret his question. "You're scared of the dark. I'm scared of the cold."

Nine is silent. What is there to say, really? She must be scared for her own reasons. Maybe it's the fact that she's always cold, as her ice legacy has now dictated her usual body temperature, and the cold reminds her of Eight. Just as the dark reminds him of his time with the mogs, a time which scared him even though he would never admit it to anyone but Marina.

He thinks that the cold that eats at her from the inside reminds her of that night at the marsh, with Eight's symbol against her leg, and maybe that's why she fears it. She fears it because she lost Eight to the cold, and she has lost herself to it too.

Nine has always been reckless, but this is the most well thought out thing that he has ever really tried. Because, she's helped him with his fear of the dark, letting him room with her for a night, he should help her with her own fear.

He grabs her around the waist and pulls her into his chest, wrapping his arms around her. It's a gesture that holds nothing but comfort, nothing but a want to help her, and his heart lurches when he feels her gasp against his chest. She doesn't pull away, though. Because he thinks she understands the meaning of it. She will keep him company in the dark, and he will keep her warm in the cold, as much as he can.

No words are said. No words are truly needed.

(Nor are they needed the next day, when Nine silently crawls into her bed)


	5. follow you into the dark - eight xmarina

**follow you into the dark ~ marina x eight, o/s nine x marina**

**Extra Notes: I seem to be unable to write Navrina that won't depress you all. Oh and look one-sided Nine/Marina is creeping in.**

Eight had promised to stay with her, to keep her with him. He had asked her to trust him, follow him without precedent. Their link went far beyond the Loric charm holding them all together.

And when he dies (_you weren't supposed to go, you weren't supposed to leave where I couldn't follow_), she feels the shock in more than just the burning on her ankle

She feels it jar her very soul.

* * *

Death places a wedge between them that is like glass - clear as crystal, and cruelly so. It is like she can see him (in her dreams, in her sleep, she doesn't want it to end, but it always does), but she can never touch him. She pounds her fists on the glass, cries her voice hoarse, but Eight will always be on the other side of that barrier, no matter what she does.

She is not allowed to follow him, not allowed to be pulled by the thread that has linked them together since they met, and it hurts, because she can't move on. (_I want to_, she tells Nine as he hugs her to his chest, stroking her hair, and the rest of the sentence goes unsaid, because he knows that she can't).

* * *

Nine deserves quite a bit for his resilience with her - _I'm not leaving you alone, Marina. Not while you're like this, _or_, Come on, Marina you need to eat_ - and he looks at her so intensely, she almost thinks that she should look at him the way he does her. But, no. Eight is still on the other side of that glass, still looming right in front of her even though she can never touch him. (Even when separated by death, their link deems that they can never be too far apart).

* * *

When it comes time for Five to pay his due, it is not Marina who does the deed. Nine is the one to slice his hand off when he tries to touch her, and then slit his throat when he falls to the floor, maimed and crying.

Marina can only watch for a second before her ankle lights up, and when the blinding pain leaves her, she thinks she ought to look down at the loric symbol for five and feel closure.

All she feels is a numbing sense of emptiness

* * *

She tries to do it, she really does. She even picks out a knife and stands in front of the wall, ready to push it deeper in. But, when she has the point to her chest, right above her heart, so she can go the way Eight did, she realizes that she just can't do it. Not with Setrakus Ra still running around with his head on his shoulders.

Marina drops the knife and flees it, scared that if she holds it any longer she'll actually commit the deed.

(Nine grunts when she crawls into his bed, but embraces her anyway. She can't help but feel how wrong it is, deep in the pit of her stomach)

* * *

Ella surprises everyone when she is the one to stab Setrakus Ra in the back. 'Heir', he called her, and she played the part that he wished, just to get the trojan horse in. She played it so well, that Marina and Nine had actually believed her, actually tried to feel contempt for her betrayal.

But now, as she holds the hilt of a sword that peeks out of Setrakus' chest, causing a spot of blood to travel outwards to soak his shirt the same way that Eight's did, Marina realizes they were all stupid to doubt her. She should have known that, at the most dire moment, when Setrakus had his sword to her throat, Ella would act.

Because they were a team. They had sworn on it even before Marina knew Ella was a Loric.

Ella lets go of the hilt, letting the Mogodorian leader collapse to the ground backwards, and races into Marina's embrace. Before she knows it, Nine, Adam, Six, John, Sarah and Sam have dived into the dogpile (_it's over, it's all over, we can go back_).

And still, even with Nine's hands on her back, she thinks of how Eight should be here. Setrakus Ra is dead, but even that falls short of the closure she needs.

* * *

It's a week after the defeat when Nine catches her searching under the sink of their temporary house for something. The government provided it, telling them that they could stay there until all the mogs had been chased off of planet Earth and their ship is ready. "Hi, Marina," he says, standing in front of the fridge.

Marina places the bottle on the counter and closes the cabinet. "Hi Nine," she replies, getting out a cup.

"Wanna have a drink with me? We're underage, but the government promised to let it pass as long as we don't go too crazy," he grins at her, waving a bottle of White Wine. Marina smiles back, half-hearted, and she considers saying no. But then, she decided against it. She doesn't want to seem suspicious.

"Uh, sure. Pass it here, I'll get the cups and pour. Just sit down," she motions to the dining table. Nine's smile widens, and he throws her the bottle. The glass is warm against her skin when she catches it. How long has Nine been holding it?

She reaches in the cabinet for another cup, a mug, because all the others look the same, and pours, covering her actions with her body.

"Ironic, huh? Ella killed Setrakus, of all the people," he chuckles. "I knew that little girl had some macho genes in her."

Marina smiles back, and walks up to sit next to him, handing him the plain cup (_remember to get the mug, the mug is yours_).

"I think she gets it from you, mr. Macho himself," she replies. Her smile widens (give him a good look at it, just enough for the road) and brings the mug to her lips, before throwing her head back. The drink burns as it goes down, this is her first time drinking it, but she swallows all of the contents in one go. She screws up her face and places the mug back down.

"First time?" He asks, ever mirthful since Setrakus's defeat. He wrinkles his nose. "They must have scrubbed this place down with chemicals before we came here. It smells in here." He doesn't see the way her throat bobs as she gulps.

She nods, not lying at all when she says "You have no idea," even though she took a gulp of White Wine in an inn, once. After Eight's death. Her voice is hoarse, her throat still burning.

He laughs and takes a gulp of his own. She's sure it doesn't burn going down, not half as much as it did for her. He places down the cup, and when he looks at her, in that intense way that he always does, she almost regrets it.

Before she can say anything, any sorry, or goodbye or anything (because it's beginning to eat at her), he grabs her face between his hands and kisses her. She's sure that it's just a Nine thing, this unexpected out-of-nowhere kiss, and she kisses him back because this is the way he'll remember her.

He tastes it on her lips almost immediately after his tongue goes to pass them, and he lurches back from the kiss, eyes wide.

"No," he says, and the regret that she feels surpasses anything else. His eyes flit to the counter, where the bottle of oven cleaner sits innocently next to the wine. Everything has suddenly fallen into place before he realized he was supposed to be solving it. "Marina, you didn't."

She tries to answer (_I'm sorry, I'm sorry_) but her throat is raw and her stomach is beginning to burn, as the poison spreads. She coughs, and tries to stand, but her legs die out from under her. Nine is screaming her name, grabbing her, shaking her, but it's too late, she knows it's too late. She wishes he knew it too. The lye is already beginning to spread. There's fire in her throat and stomach and it's traveling through her body faster than maybe it should.

Strangely enough, when everything goes dark and right before she loses consciousness, the closure she has so vehemently wishes for arrives. She has kept her promise, despite everything.

_If there's no one beside you_

_When your soul embarks_

_Then I'll follow you into the dark_


	6. baby, i'm not a monster - osfive x seven

**baby, I'm not a monster - o/s five x marina**.

**Extra Notes: this was supposed to be happy woopsies. I promise hapoy Navrina next?**

_The people of the world have turned their backs against me  
The corners of their eyes are all twisted up  
The greatest pain to me,  
Is the fact that you became the same as them_

It isn't just the fact that his knuckles are cracked that drives his face with pain. It's not even that his own kind, who he is trying to help, trying to save, from a future of pain and misery, isn't understanding that he is right.

It's all because she was the first to attack, and that is the greatest blow that he has ever been dealt. Not only that - but, he can already see it forming on her face. That same disgust that she only uses when she speaks of the mogs.

Nothing he has ever experienced is as painful as that.

He doesn't mean to kill Eight. Really, he doesn't mean to kill anyone. Setrakus' orders were to leave the Garde to him. But, with the frustration blooming from Marina's betrayal, Nine's barbed words, and from the mere obtusity of the situation hissing in his ears like venomous snakes (_do it, do it Five, you know you want to_), he can't control himself.

Of course, everything just has to go wrong.

Five doesn't realize what's really happening until Nine yells "NO!" and it's too late to withdraw the blade. He can almost feel the vibrations of Eight's beating heart resonating through the handle, and the look that Eight gives him - the look of betrayal and complete, gut-wrenching clarity - will forever be engraved onto the back of his eyelids.

He pulls the blade out, because feeling Eight's dying heartbeat against his wrist is almost painful, and Eight stumbles away from him, mouth moving but no words coming out. Five's horrified gaze slides over to Marina, who is staring with an almost unbelieving look at Eight.

He realizes, right then and there, that what he has just done is unforgivable.

He tries to speak, opens his mouth to say her name, to try and lessen the blow, but his ankle is burning and Marina is screaming and -

Everything has fallen to pieces.

He's experienced the pain thrice before, so, overall, it isn't so bad - if it were Nine, he would have even liked it - but, he knows it's Eight, and maybe that's the worst part.

It isn't.

The worst part is her face when he approaches her - and the icy words that follow.

"Marina, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, I swear!" He says, voice laced with an apology that will never be accepted.

"Shut up!" she snaps, hands bloody from laying on Eight's chest. "Just - stay away!"

Marina's not crying, yes. But he thinks it would be almost better if she cried - it would mean that she's still her, that she's still nice, loving, forgiving Marina. But their's a look that's terrifyingly beautiful on her - one of icy fury.

"Marina, you know I'm right! Please, I'm trying to - " he breaks off, as a wave of icy cold air bites at his skin. He begins to shiver, as frost starts to ripple out around the dirt around them. "M-marina? W-what are you doing? Stop..."

She looks at him, eyes cold and almost cloudy, and he has little time to regret bringing her attention to him before he feels a stabbing pain in his foot.

"Agh!" he yelps, ducking down to try and grab at his impaled foot. Instead, he pokes his eye out on another, long icicle jutting from the ground, and springs back, another scream of pain on his lips.

"Marina," he begs her, "stop, just please!"

He can feel the heat of her glare, and it's worse than the pain in his foot and eye and the ice that builds on his arms. The hum of a mog ship - sweet relief, backup has arrived - reaches his ears, before another voice, Six's he assumes, calls out.

"Marina, come on!"

Marina's words make his heart lurch in his chest.

"If I see you again, you traitorous bastard," she yells, and her voice (it's her voice, which makes it so much worse) is filled with unyielding ice. "I'll take the other fucking eye!"

_It's been a while since we've met  
Your face looks good  
You got prettier, you were always beautiful in my eyes_

Their next meeting is more painful than the last.

And she's so much stronger.

Not that she wasn't strong before, of course. He's always seen it in her eyes - that silent strength, that unyielding resilience - but now her legacies reflect it. And it's both wonderful and heartbreaking bunched into one.

Not to mention how beauteous a sight it is to see. He was always dumbstruck by the potent, natural beauty that Sarah held, and the fierce warrior-like beauty that Six always carried, but it's Marina's wild radiance that took him to the level of staring.

_But today you look a bit different  
You look especially a bit cold_

Marina has obviously gotten her bearings, let her feelings of his betrayal settle in the direction of disdain, and it's terrible to behold. He never thought that he'd see her so cold, so horribly furious with an icy fire to it. It is painful and awestriking.

_You cut me off right away  
Your long hair flowing_

Five tries to get through to her (_Marina, listen, please - I'm sorry and I didn't mean to - believe me_), but all he gets in return is a sliced cheek.

"Fight me!" she screams at him, anger taking her face, her eyes glassy with tears or sweat he doesn't know. She punches at him, and he takes it, and she kicks him, and he takes it - because it's too painful and he can't hurt her and he can just close his eyes and block it out because he doesn't want it to be real. "Fight me, you bastard!"

I can't, he thinks, but "I won't," he says, taking everything because he can't stand to do anything but pretend that it isn't _her_ fighting him.

_Your existence is a chronic disease, a repitition of pain  
You're a lingering attachment in my heart_

But she's more than just a reminder of his mistake. She's a lingering disease that won't pass. Marina's a bug that has latched onto his heart and won't leave.

She isn't his world, she is the epidemic that slowly kills his world.

_Don't go, don't go, don't go, don't leave me  
Don't do it, don't do it, don't do it, it's not like you_

When it finally comes - the heart wrenching battle that he always expected - he tries to fight. He does. He blocks out her face and pretends she is Nine or Six (and tries to ignore it when he sees her as Setrakus Ra), but every time he blinks it's her again and she's his weakness and -

"Please," he whispers, as he cradles her against him, her blood rushing out all over his clothes.

This isn't how it was supposed to be. She was supposed to win the battle, and he was supposed to die and beg her forgiveness, and she was supposed to forgive him just before everything fell away.

But how it was supposed to go is never how it does go, and now he is sitting there with Marina dying in his arms. He pushes on her chest, hoping to somehow push all the blood back in, but the blood is on her lips and on her cheek and everywhere and everything is so red, so beautifully but terribly red.

"I love you," he says. "Don't go - I wasn't supposed to - " he breaks off with a sob, pushing his face into her hair. "Don't leave me."

But she has already left.

_I think I'm sick, I think I'm sick_


	7. mistletoe - eight x marina

**mistletoe - eight x marina**

**Extra Notes: so, I feel really bad for writing that last one. Which is why I present you with an 'I'm sorry' gift. AU. They're all humans. AJ=Albert Junior = Number Five. So, there's some background Five/Seven, Sarah/John and Sam/Six. The last one included lyrics from the song of the same name by Big Bang. It's a good song - you should listen to it. btw guys I'm so screwed because i think i have fallen for a guy that likes my sister (it's so blatantly obvious). You'd think after it happened to me fifty other fucking times, I'd get the picture. geez.**

Marina sips from her paper cup, gingerly looking around at all the other party goers. She should be here with her boyfriend, AJ, but after their fight last week she isn't even sure where they stand anymore. AJ is the epitome of a jealous boyfriend - and the fight was centered on the fact that he'd seen her briefly conversing with Sam Goode - Maren's boyfriend and a total sweetheart - when she handed him a box of streamers and christmas tree decorations for the Christmas dance committee.

All her friends are out on the dance floor, Sarah in John's arms and Maren in Sam's, and she's just standing to the side moping in her sea green cocktail dress that she swears shows way too much of her long, bony legs to look good on her. She shuffles, black laced heels making clacking sounds, and takes another gulp of the obviously spiked punch.

"Hey there," says a voice from her right.

She turns her head, bangs whipping at her face (Sarah, Maren and Ella took the most part of six hours of prep and three and a half cans of hairspray to work it into a pretty braided updo with two curled locks of hair framing her face), to see a very tall, lanky (obviously senior) boy standing there. Marina is absolutely positive he's drunk as can be from the spiked punch, so she backs away slightly. "I have a boyfriend," she immediately announces.

The boy chuckles coldly. "Doesn't matter much to me," he replies, closing in on her. She backs up further, accidentally bumping into the wall. She suddenly realizes her mistake as he cages her against the wall with his arms - he has her cornered

"It should," comes another, familiar, voice from behind the boy.

He turns his body, so Marina can see over his shoulder, and she breathes a sigh of relief.

It's Naveen, AJ's cousin. Naveen sometimes would tag along as third wheel on her dates with AJ, as requested by Marina herself, because she enjoyed his company.

"And why would that be?" asks the boy, turning to Naveen. Marina begins to shuffle out from behind him, hoping to make a run for it. Unfortunately, Naveen stops that idea right in it's tracks.

With one stride, he's reached them, and he leans over to wrap his fingers around Marina's biceps and pull her toward him, gentle as possible. He tucks her under his arm protectively. "Because I'm the boyfriend."

Marina looks up at him, eyes wide, but realizes what he's doing and decides to play along. Instead, she snuggles closer to him, one hand gripping tightly to the back of his shirt while the other brings her cup to her lips, trying to look casual.

The boy looks poised to fight for her - just for a second - before he visually gives up and stumbles away, mumbling obscenities under his breath.

"Well, I certainly expected him to fight for you a lot better. Doesn't know what he's missing, eh?" says Naveen, looking down at her.

"T-thanks," Marina stammers, awkwardly trying to draw away from him.

"Well, AJ's not around," he says, pulling her closer to him. "Just play along a little while longer. He's watching us."

Marina turns to look, and she sees that Naveen's words ring true when the boy locks eyes with her from across the room. She quickly looks away. "Oh, yeah. Okay."

"Dance with me? You looked pretty lonely - and Stan's off dancing with that new girl, Maddy," he offers.

"Oh - yeah," she replies, nodding hesitantly. She doesn't want to get approached again, but she doesn't want to embarrass herself or seem like she's straddling the fence. "That's cool. But - umm...I'm kind of bad at dancing...I'm a total kl - "

"Of course, I know," he says, "you can't be that bad. Just take my lead."

"Okay," she answers, setting her cup down on the corner of the table. What else can she say? She owes this much to him.

Naveen grins, and drags her onto the dance floor, her stumbling in her three inch heels that Maren tossed at her after viciously yelling that there was no way she was wearing fucking trainers with that dress.

Cliche as it may be, the minute they get onto the dance floor, the DJ slows down the music. In a way, Marina is glad of it. She doesn't want to have to dance to something where she'll be terribly off beat and the only thing she knows to do is the wave.

Naveen pulls her closer, and she makes a startled sound. "I love this song," he says, grinning down at her. He's teasing - she knows Naveen well enough to see that.

"Not so close," she hisses. "AJ - "

"Should be the one here with you," he interrupts, voice low so only she can here. He begins to lead her around the dance floor, so she can only follow. "I'm sorry about him, by the way. He doesn't know what he's missing. I love him to bits, but AJ is such an idiot."

There's a strange intensity that lies thick in his voice and eyes, and Marina decides not to think too much of it.

"I just - " she cuts off, hesitating. What she wants to say is that she's confused, but she knows that this dance is just something that Naveen will high five about with with Stan and the rest of the Football team, and she doesn't want to impart too much of her thoughts lest it reaches AJ.

"I know," he says, and Marina realizes, by the look in his eyes, that he really does.

Naveen has always understood her better than AJ, she thinks.

"Listen, Marina," he says. "AJ is nice and all, but I want you to be happy. And I don't think he deserves you."

Marina's throat becomes to feel slightly clogged, and she only now regrets her choice to accept his offer of a dance. Especially because the way she knew him as the only cute member on the football team before he and Stan pushed her in the closet with AJ during a prank that would jumpstart a whirlwind of events leading to their relationship. "Geez, Nav, are you trying to be his wingman? You're doing a terrible job of it."

"I think I'm supposed to be," he replies, and she feels his arms tighten around her. His voice takes on a husky quality, which makes heat rise to Marina's neck. "Marina, that time with the closet...I didn't realize until it was too late that I - "

He breaks off when a blonde cheerleader passes by, announcing the word 'Mistletoe!' to them and pointing upwards. They both look up to see that, indeed, there is mistletoe hanging above them.

Naveen looks down at her, grinning. "You wanna take a crack at it?"

Marina has never done anything for herself before. She came to this dance so Sarah and Maren wouldn't have to stay home with her while she moped about her theoretic breakup, she began to date AJ because he had this look that told her that he's been rejected by one too many girls (even though she had a crush on his cousin), and she's been taking Ballet since she was six, because Adelina has always told her that she wanted a daughter who she could dote on backstage.

But now, there is a chance for her. And she'll never know if it's a good one if she doesn't take it.

And then there's that little nagging part in the back of her mind that is clouded by alcohol - the part that makes her logical decisions and points out the repercussions of every action she has ever decided on.

"Lay it on me."


End file.
